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WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 7, 2005

Tiger Woods

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tiger Woods, thank you for joining us. A little bit of an up and down round today, but two shots off the lead of Colin Montgomerie. Start with some opening comments.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I guess first off, today I thought I turned a really good round into an okay round. I had an opportunity to really take it deep today and I didn't do that. It was a little bit frustrating, but I'll go out on the range and work on it.

Q. Is 7 a no doubter today just in terms of going for the green? Obviously the tee was up today, but did you have the decision already in your mind?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I didn't know the tees were up. It was up 25 yards, and that's significant. It's only 305 to the front, and with the wind kind of down and across, I could make it. I thought with that pin location, it's no big deal. If I'm in the front bunker it's an easy shot, whereas yesterday if I would have taken a run at it, I couldn't carry it over that front bunker, so with a 40 yard bunker shot, that's not what you want to have.

Q. Are you at a stage where if you just eliminate the mistakes you'll be okay?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah. I made quite a few mistakes today. You eliminate those, I'm in double digits for the week. Also the putts I missed, as well. If I can just clean up the round.

Q. You hit kind of a wild tee shot on 14, but you kind of steadied yourself with that birdie.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was a terrible tee shot. I was driving it well until that one. I got a break and it gave me a shot, and I tried to put the ball wherever on the green, just run it up there, wherever it is. Luckily I had a pretty decent putt at it. Stevie and I looked at it and I poured it right in there.

Q. Did you feel like that restored some momentum?

TIGER WOODS: It did because I had just hit a terrible golf shot on the last hole with a 9 iron in my hand, so tomorrow to come back with a birdie is always nice.

Q. They're talking about some wind on the weekend. Are you looking forward to the course playing trickier?

TIGER WOODS: With the fairways as fast as they are, it's hard to keep the ball in the fairway with all the doglegs, and some of the holes run away from you. It's a challenge to try and put the ball in play, in the fairway. And with the pin locations as tough as they are tomorrow, I saw where the dots were, it's going to be tough to get the ball close.

Q. We didn't know how this thing was going to play. There was talk of 20 under. It doesn't look that way. Is it weather mostly or pins

TIGER WOODS: Pins. They've done a wonderful job of setting up the golf course. The rough is up, but the fairways are fast and they're hard to hit. But then again, the pin locations are really tough. And you hide them on firm greens like this, it's tough to get the ball close.

Q. Are they fair pins?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, they're great pins, great pins. It would be a totally different story if the greens were soft. But if the ball is bouncing the way it is on the greens, it makes difficult pins even more difficult to get at.

Q. So many guys bunched between 7 and 3. What is it about this course that has allowed for that, and do you see anyone breaking away?

TIGER WOODS: Well, it's hard to really take it deep. If you have an opportunity to do it, I mean, it's going to be you're going to be ahead of the curve. This golf course lends itself to making a couple mistakes here and there and bunching the field up. Today I felt like was my opportunity to basically shoot what Monty shot yesterday.

Q. You've always liked a tournament where nobody is shooting 20 under par. I mean, you like it where a good round will move you ahead or leap you up a little bit, right?

TIGER WOODS: Exactly. If you shoot a round under par here, you feel like you've done something. It's fun. It's fun to play tournaments like that. Many of the majors are like that now, and maybe a couple others, but usually it's just a birdie fest. It's rare we have the opportunity to play a golf course where the ball is springing on the greens, you've got to shape shots off the tees to try and keep the ball in play. That's fun. If you know you've posted around the mid 60s you've done well and you know you've moved up that board.

Q. You looked like you were deep in reading the putt on 16 and walking back when John's ball sort of rolled up. You broke a pretty wide smile.

TIGER WOODS: Well, when I was lining up the putt, I could see it was a driver. I knew it was going to fly in the trees or roll up or something. I knew John was going to react one way or another. I kind of had the mindset. I was walking around and the ball rolled up, and I said, "If I make this putt, we half the hole." He didn't do it.

Q. If someone were to come back here, would it have to be a limited field?

TIGER WOODS: I don't see how you can get a full field around this golf course, not in the time we have.

Q. Should something come back here, based on your two days of

TIGER WOODS: If you have a limited field event like this, yeah, there's no reason why we can't. It's a wonderful golf course and you can see that there's room to make it harder if they wanted to. It's a wonderful golf course, a great test.

Q. Put this in, take Spyglass out?

TIGER WOODS: That's a long drive, isn't it?

Q. A little bird named Mark told us about your trip down to Stanford to see the kids, a little surprise visit. Do you want to tell us how that went, to surprise the golf team and treat the kids?

TIGER WOODS: It was just fun. It was a great opportunity for all of us just to have fun together. You know, I can't say I'm an alumnus, I'm a past attendee (laughter). You know, an opportunity for all of us just to chill and let them ask questions, pick my brain, what it's like to be on Tour, what it's like to try and get to this level. And this is where a lot of them want to go, want to be. They want to be out here. I went through the farm just like them, same classes, which is kind of funny. It's just an opportunity for all of us to just enjoy interaction and talking. Hopefully I could help them out just a little bit. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't, but in either case, from my perspective, I had a great time.

Q. Do you see any up and coming kids like yourself coming up in the younger golf world today?

TIGER WOODS: I'll be honest with you, I haven't really paid a whole lot of attention to junior golf. I've seen some of the college guys play and I've seen them up close and personal when they had a tournament right here in my hometown at Isleworth. There's some players with a bunch of talent. They all hit it long. Not one of them hit it short. So yeah.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tiger Woods, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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